He got the ejector seat.
A TikTokker says a fellow passenger was ejected from their plane after becoming enraged when he wasn’t granted a seat swap
“Why can no one just be normal on planes?” asked Nick — who goes by @nickfromohio on TikTok — in a clip, which boasts 5.1 million views.
According to the viral video, the flyer had “planned accordingly” for the 5 a.m. flight by booking himself a seat at the back of the plane.
He had just sat down and was fast asleep, when all of a sudden, he got tapped on the shoulder by a man in his early 40s, who asked if Nick minded switching seats with him, per the clip.
Startled, the TikTokker asked why he wanted to switch, whereupon the man claimed that his two children were seated beside Nick while he was seated toward the front of the plane. Interestingly, there were no kids with him at the time.
The man argued that it was a no-brainer as Nick would get off earlier with this arrangement, adding that the switch was “no big deal.”
However, the content creator refused as he was exhausted and didn’t want to get up.
“I was like ‘You know what I’m just a little bit tired, I don’t feel like going through the hassle of moving stuff around,’” Nick recalled.
Undeterred, the traveler offered to move the Nick’s stuff up front, prompting him to reiterate that he didn’t want to trade.
At one point, the frustrated man said, “You’re serious, you’re not going to let a father sit with his kids?”
All the while, Nick was growing increasingly suspicious that the man’s kids were grownups, otherwise they would’ve been with him at the time.
His instincts proved to be correct: When the man finally brought his sons over, Nick saw that they were around the same age that he was.
“These kids aren’t little, you don’t need to sit next to these people,” Nick sniped, recalling the bizarre situation.
Things began to get testy after both the father and his sons started laying into the TikTokker for refusing to move. Upon hearing the commotion, a flight attendant came over and asked what was amiss, whereupon the dad falsely claimed that Nick was sitting in his seat.
When Nick showed the crew member his ticket to prove he was in the correct seat, the man accused him of stealing his ticket — a spurious allegation given that the pass was on Nick’s phone.
Nick subsequently explained the situation to the flight attendant, at which point the father went absolutely bananas.
“He starts screaming at me, calling me all the names in the book,” Nick recounted, adding that his son was trying to calm him down and tell him not to “punch anyone.”
When the flight attendant attempted to escort the irate flyer to his seat, the man reportedly broke free and started “storming” over to Nick, prompting the son and flight attendants to try and hold the now “red and fuming” flyer back.
The flyer was then taken off the flight by security while Nick was moved to a “first class seat.”
“He doesn’t even get to fly on the plane with them,” gushed the video poster, who used the saga as an example of why to never switch seats with someone as they probably have “bad intentions.”
The commentariat overwhelmingly sided with Nick with one fan writing: “I will never understand how entitled some people are.”
Another fumed: “I HATE when people say ‘it’s not a big deal’ while making a big deal to get their way.”
“You should have told them ‘sorry my parents are sitting in row 7 and I DON’T want to sit by them,”” joked a third.
Seat swapping has been a contentious issue of late with some people claiming that those who propose it should’ve planned better by booking better seats beforehand.
Meanwhile, defenders have claimed that sometimes people need to seat swap due to cancellations, medical issues and other unforeseen circumstances.
Either way, flight experts agree that it is ultimately up to the requestee whether or not they decide to swap spots.
“No one has the obligation to switch their seat, nor explain why they won’t switch,” declared California author and etiquette expert Rosalinda Randall. “And the person making the request has no right to expect, or get angry, when they don’t get their way.”
